We plead with Mary for a
deep renewal of faith in all the Church's children

On Saturday morning, 25 March,
the Holy Father went to the Basilica of the Annunciation in
Nazareth. There he prayed at the grotto marking the site of the
Holy Family's house, where the Word was made flesh, and then
celebrated Mass in the upper church for the Solemnity of the
annunciation. After the proclamation of the Gospel, the Pope
gave the following homily in English. Here is the text.

"Behold the
handmaid of the Lord.
Be it done unto me according to your word" (Angelus
Prayer).

Your Beatitude,
Brother Bishops,
Father Custos,

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

1. 25th March in the year 2000, the Solemnity of the
Annunciation in the Year of the Great Jubilee: on this day the
eyes of the whole Church turn to Nazareth. I have longed to come
back to the town of Jesus, to feel once again, in contact with
this place, the presence of the woman of whom Saint Augustine
wrote. "He chose the mother he had created; he created the
mother he had chosen" (Sermo 69, 3, 4). Here it is
especially easy to understand why all generations call Mary
blessed (cf. Lk 2:48).

I warmly greet Your Beatitude Patriarch Michel Sabbah, and
thank you for your kind words of presentation. With Archbishop
Boutros Mouallem and all of you—Bishops, priests, religious
women and men, and members of the laity—I rejoice in the grace
of this solemn celebration. I am happy to have this opportunity
to greet the Franciscan Minister General, Father Giacomo Bini,
who welcomed me on my arrival, and to express to the Custos,
Father Giovanni Battistelli, and the Friars of the Custody the
admiration of the whole Church for the devotion with which you
carry out your unique vocation. With gratitude I pay tribute to
your faithfulness to the charge given to you by Saint Francis
himself and confirmed by the Popes down the centuries.

2. We are gathered to celebrate the great mystery
accomplished here two thousand years ago. The Evangelist Luke
situates the event clearly in time and place: "In the sixth
month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee
called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph...
The virgin's name was Mary" (1:26-27). But in order to
understand what took place in Nazareth two thousand years ago,
we must return to the Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews.
That text enables us, as it were, to listen to a conversation
between the Father and the Son concerning God's purpose from all
eternity. "You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation prepared
a body for me. You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices
for sin. Then I said . . . 'God, here I am! I am coming to obey
your will'" (10:5-7). The Letter to the Hebrews is telling
us that, in obedience to the Father's will, the Eternal Word
comes among us to offer the sacrifice which surpasses all the
sacrifices offered under the former Covenant. His is the eternal
and perfect sacrifice which redeems the world.

The divine plan is gradually revealed in the Old Testament,
particularly in the words of the Prophet Isaiah which we have
just heard: "The Lord himself will give you a sign. It is
this: the virgin is with child and will soon give birth to a
child whom she will call Emmanuel" (7:14). Emmanuel—God
with us. In these words, the unique event that was to take place
in Nazareth in the fullness of time is foretold, and it is this
event that we are celebrating here with intense joy and
happiness.

3. Our Jubilee Pilgrimage has been a journey in spirit, which
began in the footsteps of Abraham, "our father in
faith" (Roman Canon; cf. Rom 4:11-12). That
journey has brought us today to Nazareth, where we meet Mary,
the truest daughter of Abraham. It is Mary above all others who
can teach us what it means to live the faith of "our
father". In many ways Mary is clearly different from
Abraham; but in deeper ways "the friend of God" (cf. Is
41:8) and the young woman of Nazareth are very alike.

Both Abraham and Mary receive a wonderful promise from
God. Abraham was to be
the father of a son, from whom there would come a great nation.
Mary is to be the Mother of a Son who would be the Messiah, the
Anointed One. "Listen!", Gabriel says, "You are
to conceive and bear a son... The Lord God will give him the
throne of his ancestor David... and his reign will have no
end" (Lk 1:31-33).

For both Abraham and Mary, the divine promise comes as
something completely unexpected. God disrupts the daily course
of their lives, overturning its settled rhythms and conventional
expectations. For both Abraham and Mary, the promise seems
impossible. Abraham's wife Sarah was barren, and Mary is not yet
married; "How can this come about", she asks,
"since I am a virgin" (Lk 1:34).

4. Like Abraham, Mary is asked to say yes to something that
has never happened before. Sarah is the first in the line of
barren wives in the Bible who conceive by God's power, just as
Elizabeth will be the last. Gabriel speaks of Elizabeth to
reassure Mary. "Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth
has, in her old age, herself conceived a son" (Lk
1:36).

Like Abraham, Mary must walk through darkness, in which she
must simply trust the One who called her. Yet even her question,
"How can this come about?", suggests that Mary is
ready to say yes, despite her fears and uncertainties. Mary asks
not whether the promise is possible, but only how it will be
fulfilled. It comes as no surprise, therefore, when finally she
utters her fiat: "I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let
what you have said be done to me" (Lk 1:38). With
these words, Mary shows herself the true daughter of Abraham,
and she becomes the Mother of Christ and Mother of all
believers.

5. In order to penetrate further into the mystery, let us
look back to the moment of Abraham's journey when he received
the promise. It was when he welcomed to his home three
mysterious guests (cf. Gen 18:1-15), and offered them the
adoration due to God: tres vidit et unum adoravit. That
mysterious encounter foreshadows the Annunciation, when Mary is
powerfully drawn into communion with the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit. Through the fiat that Mary uttered in
Nazareth, the Incarnation became the wondrous fulfilment of
Abraham's encounter with God. So, following in the footsteps of
Abraham, we have come to Nazareth to sing the praises of the
woman "through whom the light rose over the earth"
(Hymn Ave Regina Caelorum).

6. But we have also come to plead with her. What do we,
pilgrims on our way into the Third Christian Millennium, ask of
the Mother of God? Here in the town which Pope Paul VI, when he
visited Nazareth, called "the school of the Gospel",
where "we learn to look at and to listen to, to ponder and
to penetrate the deep and mysterious meaning of the very simple,
very humble and very beautiful appearing of the Son of God"
(Address in Nazareth, 5 January 1964), I pray, first, for
a great renewal of faith in all the children of the Church. A
deep renewal of faith: not just as a general attitude of life,
but as a conscious and courageous profession of the Creed: "Et
incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo
factus est."

In Nazareth, where Jesus "grew in wisdom and age and
grace before God and men" (Lk 2:52), I ask the Holy
Family to inspire all Christians to defend The family against
present-day threats to its nature, its stability and its mission. To the Holy Family I entrust the efforts of Christians
and of all people of good will to defend life and to promote
respect for the dignity of every human being.

To Mary, the Theotokos, the great Mother of God, I
consecrate the families of the Holy Land, the families of the
world.

In Nazareth where Jesus began his public ministry, I ask Mary
to help the Church everywhere to preach the "good
news" to the poor, as he did (cf. Lk 4:18). In this
"year of the Lord's favour", I ask her to teach us the
way of humble and joyful obedience to the Gospel in the service
of our brothers and sisters, without preferences and without
prejudices.

"O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my
petitions, but in your mercy hear and answer me. Amen" (Memorare).

Taken from:
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
29 March 2000

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